Sunday, March 31, 2013

Another thing we do here at IndieLicious is host a once a month cover reveal of upcoming Indie books. If you're interested in seeing your cover on this space, please e-mail us at indieliciousnewbookreveals@gmail.com. And now, take a look at these gorgeous covers!

 
At 900 years old, Nissa is finally ready to follow her mother's path and become the best Fairy Godmother she can. She’s not thrilled when her first assignment turns out to be a teenage human girl with self-esteem issues, but she knows she has to start somewhere. Her assignment has dealt with bullies since her freshman year and they haven’t let up. If Nissa can’t help her regain her self-confidence her future is bleak.

To complicate matters Nissa experiences all the signs that she's met the being fated for her. This impossibility distracts her from her purpose. After all, fairies and humans aren't meant for each other. How can her heart believe otherwise? Can Nissa successfully complete her first assignment as a Fairy Godmother? Will the fates allow Nissa and Levi to be together? And even if they do, will Levi believe Nissa once she reveals the truth?


A dying realm.


The ancient evil of the Droch-ShĂºil has been unleashed.


The Orchids have been silenced… but for how long?


Daegan, elite of the Ferrishyn warrior tribe of Faeries, is charged with a mission to find the Sol-lumieth, a mysterious new power that could change the fate of all in the realm of Alandria. But he is conflicted by his purpose, and he cannot trust the motives of those he serves. He has too many questions and they must be answered.


Kaeleigh, a girl abandoned as a small child just outside Missoula, Montana, is now 18. She is trying to discover who she is and where she belongs. In her heart, she feels she has family out there… somewhere. Desperate to unravel the mysteries of her past, she embarks on a journey that will forever change her along with her two best friends, Finn and Chel—who have secrets of their own.


Aren't they both beautiful?


Posted by Unknown On 3:00 AM 2 comments READ FULL POST

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Synopsis:

Blue Echohawk doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know her real name or when she was born. Abandoned at two and raised by a drifter, she didn't attend school until she was ten years old. At nineteen, when most kids her age are attending college or moving on in life, she is just a senior in high school. With no mother, no father, no faith, and no future, Blue Echohawk is a difficult student, to say the least. Tough, hard and overtly sexy, she is the complete opposite of the young British teacher who decides he is up for the challenge, and takes the troublemaker under his wing.

This is the story of a nobody who becomes somebody. It is the story of an unlikely friendship, where hope fosters healing and redemption becomes love. But falling in love can be hard when you don't know who you are. Falling in love with someone who knows exactly who they are and exactly why they can't love you back might be impossible.

Where to buy:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords

                                                                Follow Amy online:
                                                      Twitter     Goodreads     Facebook

Posted by Unknown On 4:55 PM No comments READ FULL POST

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Hello fellow Indie-Licious Authors. Today kicks off our first ever blurb/query critique. I will NOT share with you who the writer is, but please bear in mind that HELPFUL critique and criticism is ALL we are looking for here.

Do not post mean comments.

So, without further ado, please help us edit this baby into shape. (If you'd like your blurb/query featured here, please email indieliciousqueries@gmail.com).

~Krystal

Had she known she was descended from The Beast of fairytale lore, seventeen-year-old Holland Briggs wouldn’t have been shocked by the accusations of crimes she didn’t remember committing. But with no recollection of torching her ex-boyfriend’s house or poisoning his new girlfriend, and no knowledge of her cursed fate, these accusations devastate Holland’s world. Striving to pick up the shattered pieces of her life, Holland is no longer revered or admired. Not even the social lepers want to be seen with the school’s freak pyromaniac.

Armed with the knowledge of what the future holds for Holland Briggs, Mick Stevenson has one purpose in life: to save her from the curse that has haunted the Briggs family for generations. To do so, he must fall in love with Holland, earn her love in return, then break the centuries-old spell. Incorrectly trusting that time is on his side, Mick leisurely gets to know Holland, finding it incredibly easy to fall for the broken beauty.

But as Holland begins changing way before schedule, the dangerous side of her nature is revealed, and Mick struggles to find a way to free her.

He must succeed, because failure means losing Holland to the beast forever.

Okay, all, so our anonymous author has updated the blurb/query. What do you guys think?

From senior class president to dejected social outcast, with just the flick of a match.

After accusations of torching her ex-boyfriend’s home are followed by the mysterious poisoning of her ex-best friend, seventeen-year-old Holland Briggs assumes her life is over. And it is. But not in the way she thinks.

Holland’s problems are only just starting to unfold. As terrible things happen around her—like crimes she can’t remember committing—Holland begins her destined metamorphosis into The Beast that she’s only ever heard of in fairytales.

As Holland learns the truth about her cursed fate, and the spell that has plagued her family for centuries from Mick Stevenson—an ally who knows far more about her history than she does—Holland finds she must fall in love with the handsome stranger in order to break the spell.

But having sworn off love (and guys in general), this may be a difficult task. Even more so when time runs out, and Holland’s change begins way before schedule.

With the clock ticking, and Holland morphing into a dangerous mythical creature, will Mick be able to save her? Or will Holland become lost to the beast inside her forever?
Posted by Unknown On 12:00 AM 7 comments READ FULL POST

Tuesday, March 26, 2013


It's Sign Up TIME!

You know the rules. If not, please go here:



Posted by Unknown On 8:50 AM No comments READ FULL POST

Monday, March 25, 2013

Audiobooks
by Stacey Wallace Benefiel
 
 





Let’s talk Audiobooks! Since the audiobook of Glimpse came out in August, 2012, I’ve been on a mission to share how easy and cheap it is for indies to create their own using ACX.

Before we get to the step-by-step, let me explain why you should be doing this. First off, you’ve already written the book and you’ve gone to the trouble to format it for e-book and print – just think of this as another distribution channel. Secondly, it’s easy money. After the initial set-up, all you basically have to do is get a cover and listen to someone read your book. Lastly, it’s fun and collaborative. Take a break from the solitary writing cave and get out in the (virtual) world, People

Here’s how you do it:

 1. Got to https://www.acx.com/

 2. Create an account (click on the big Get Started button after admiring Neil Gaiman for a minute)
 3. This account works with your Amazon account - so you'll have the same sign in and password

 4. Creating an account here is like creating an account on any e-book platform - just follow the directions and fill in the info

5. Confirm you own the rights to your titles. This is similar to adding your books to your Author Central account, sort of an is this book yours? within ACX and then you confirm if it is or isn't.

6. Next comes the bit I found the most tedious - creating your title profile

 a. Post a cover photo (don't worry, it's not the FINAL cover art)

 b. Post a description

 c. Post an excerpt for narrators to audition with

 d. Post a write up of anything else potential narrators and producers need to know - for example, I stated that I needed a female narrator that could handle alternating POV's/chapters between a female and male character.

 e. Post word count, territories (most will be Worldwide like with e-books)

 f. Choose your royalty sitch.

 This is where you decide if you are going to pay an upfront hourly rate or royalty share. Obviously, if you pay upfront...it's going to cost something. If you do the royalty share, you don't pay anything upfront, but you do split all of your royalties with the narrator/producer 50/50.

 I chose to share my royalties, and in fact am happy to share my royalties. I honestly feel like my narrator, Martha Lee, put just as much work into creating the audiobooks as I did writing the books!


7. Now your title profiles are listed on ACX for narrators and producers to peruse. (A lot of the narrators are also the producers.)

You can wait for them to come to you, but I have no patience, so I started listening to narrator auditions right away. (Go up to Search and click on Narrators for hire.)

 8. To narrow down the number of auditions, you can put in parameters for your project. ex. Genre, Gender, Accent, Payment (some narrators don't do royalty sharing), Style, etc. I did this and came back with about 20 audition samples to listen to.

Now here's where I feel I had a bit of luck. I found Martha the first go around and when I heard her audition...I got that feeling like when you're going along writing and the dialogue is flowing and you don't even have to work for it. She just sounded right.

 I could have made her an offer straight away, by clicking on the Make an Offer button, but I was new, so I asked her to audition for Glimpse. I did this by messaging her within ACX. You know how in your head all your characters sound like you when you're reading your books? Well, when I heard Martha's samples, I thought she sounded more like Zellie than I did.

9. I made her an offer, by clicking the Make an Offer button - this is basically stating that I would like to hear the first 15 minutes by this date and have the project completed by this date. Don't worry if you are clueless to how long the whole thing should take - ACX has a formula to help you figure it out based on word count. Also, I think it's a good idea to always go with the 72 hour offer. Martha is in New York and I'm in Oregon, so we have had some time zone issues.

So, hopefully they accept your offer. This is all done through the messaging on ACX. I will say that we had trouble with some of our messages not reaching each other. No matter, when it came time to send her the manuscript, I emailed her the word doc. and we've mostly been communicating through e-mail since.

 Now, you might not want to e-mail a stranger a word doc. Go with your gut. I wanted her to be able to enlarge or change the font to however she liked it and for her to be to make notes on it. In addition, Glimpse has been out since 2010, so I wasn't really worried about it being pirated (because it already has been all over the land) or people calling into question if it was mine. ( For better or for worse, it is. Ha!)

10. Then you wait. In the meantime, you can add your cover art to the project. However, BE CAREFUL. If you're good with Photoshop, you can probably adjust the covers yourself. If not, have your cover designer or someone that is good with Photoshop format your covers. Don't just slap your e-book cover in the shape of a square up there. 1. it won't look right 2. it's a pain in the butt to change it.

 I put a placeholder cover up for Glimpse - a stretched out version of the e-book cover - and then I couldn't get it to go away. I had to e-mail ACX the good cover my husband made and ask them to change it on their end.

11. Listen to the 15 minute sample and either approve it, or ask them to make changes/try reading things a different way

12. After the 15 minutes are approved, you wait for the whole thing. Each chapter is a separate file to download. In addition, the narrator should send you an opening and closing credits and a 5 minute sample.

Listen to these intently - it's totally fun! - and make notes of any changes. Glimpse had two pronunciation changes and Glimmer had one. The narrators are locked out of making any changes until you click on the Request Changes button.

13. When you're totally satisfied with your audiobook, all you have to do is approve it and it goes to ACX for a final vetting. After that, it can take a couple weeks to a month to distribute out to Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. For me, it showed up on Audible within a few days, Amazon not much longer after that. iTunes was the hold out (as per usual).

I did have to do some e-mailing to both ACX and Amazon to try to get all versions of my books linked – that box that says Kindle, Print, Hardcover (sometimes), Audible Audiobook. Only two of my books are correctly linked (still) and have the Whispersync – where you can read the e-book and listen to the audiobook on your Kindle. These two books also happen to have been the ones in the stipend program – more on that later – and I can only assume they got more attention, that’s why everything is correct on them. Just keep e-mailing and calling until ACX gets your audiobook right – it’s the same kind of pain in the butt busywork that we have to do to get our categories changed, or our paper switched back to cream after Createspace prints our book with white. J

The one sort of weird thing about the whole audiobook experience that differs from e-book and print is that we don't control the price. Right now Glimpse is $19.95 on Audible, $17.46 on Amazon, and $9.99 on iTunes. In addition, Audible had a big promotion and Glimpse was offered at $5.46 or something for over a week, with the option to get it FREE if you joined Audible. So, FYI, if you're a control freak like me that takes some getting used to.

 14. Start promoting that puppy!

 **You may receive an e-mail from ACX informing you that your book has been put in the Production Stipend program. This means that the narrator/producers get a certain amount of extra money for each hour of audiobook finished within a certain number of days. (60 seems to be the norm.) Glimmer and the Day of Sacrifice Omnibus were both in this program.

**If you choose to hire a narrator/producer outside of ACX, that's cool. There is also the option to distribute it to other audiobook retailers, but the royalty system is way different. I figured I was hitting the big three with my deal, so that's why I went with that.

**If you'd like to see this information with pretty pictures, go here.


Stacey Wallace Benefiel is the author of the Zellie Wells trilogy, the Day of Sacrifice series, The Toilet Business – a collection of humorous essays, and multiple short stories. She sometimes goes by S.W. Benefiel or Reina Stowe, but knows she’s not foolin’ anybody. Stacey lives in an orange house in Beaverton, OR with her poet husband and their two young children. Her newest novel in the Zellie Wells world, FOUND (Penny Black #1), will be out March 1, 2013.

For more information about Stacey and her books, please visit her website: http://staceywallacebenefiel.com

Posted by Bethany Lopez Author On 9:36 PM 2 comments READ FULL POST

Tuesday, March 19, 2013


It's that time of week again. You know the rules. If not, I'll list them. :-)

1. Keep your teaser short.
2. Post by midnight eastern time.
3. Have fun!



Posted by Unknown On 8:16 AM No comments READ FULL POST

Monday, March 18, 2013

Everyone at Indie-Licious would like to say,
HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY! 
 to Gerilyn Marin on her new release ~ Buried.

Like every resident of Fane’s Cove, Cadence McKenna knows her town is, well, odd. And yet, they’re accustomed to the near-daily supernatural happenings- so accustomed, in fact, that when Gray Addison moves to town and stays, she is shocked to find that she’s the only one who insists that there must be something strange about him.
With her life-long- if minor- psychic sensitivity handed down from her grandmother, she knows that what she feels isn’t simple paranoia.  After all, how many normal guys pay no mind to random poltergeist activity occurring right in front of them?
Cadence can’t blame anyone for wanting to ignore that there might be more to his presence there- perhaps if he is a normal guy, it’s just the first sign that whatever it is about the town that drives visitors away is fading.  She might have even grudgingly let it go, but then she sees Gray acting very suspiciously and knows that she can’t dismiss her feelings until she understands why he’s in Fane’s Cove.  Even if it means sticking her neck out by pretending to get close to him . . . and learning more about her town’s history than anyone would ever want to know.


A life-long resident of New York, Gerilyn Marin studied art, gymnastics and Tae Kwon Do as a teenager.  She has a fascination with ancient civilizations and the mysteries of human origins to which she must feed a steady consumption of interesting documentaries or else it will pick fights with her creative flow.  After a brief stint living in Manhattan’s infamous Greenwich Village in her late teens, she returned to the same small town where she grew up and lives there now with her husband, three boys and newly arrived baby girl.
 

Contacts to Gerilyn's cyber worlds:

Posted by Lisa Collicutt On 9:07 AM No comments READ FULL POST

10 Tips for Authors to Maximize Twitter
by Raine Thomas

 

When I decided to self-publish in 2011, I had no idea what I was doing. Where I should have gotten into social media and befriended other indie authors before I published, I didn’t even think of doing that. In truth, I had no idea how many other indie authors were out there. I knew of big names only, which was how I even thought to self-publish. Sadly, I was way behind the curve.
 
One thing I did do was look up how some of those “big names” achieved success. The first tip I read was that I had to create a Twitter account. I’m pretty sure my first response was to whine and complain.
 
“I don’t want to have to tell people what I’m doing every two minutes,” I moaned. “Who cares what I ate for lunch today? What good can Twitter possibly do me?”
 
Sound familiar? For many of you, it probably does. Well, despite my reservations, I created my Twitter account. As it turned out, all of my initial sales were directly attributed to Twitter.

That’s right. I somehow managed to stumble my way through and get a hold of managing Twitter in the few weeks leading up to the publication of my first books. During this time, I met people who would become some of my biggest fans. Today, I’ll share with you what I did and how Twitter continues to be a huge source of support in my marketing and sales efforts. Hopefully, some of these will help you!
 

1.       Use your book cover as your avatar. Your “avatar” is the image that shows as your picture on Twitter. When I first signed up for Twitter, I didn’t have a professional author headshot. Since I didn’t want to Photoshop my goofy-grinned image from my 21st birthday, I used the cover of Becoming. It generated so much interest that I had people wanting to buy my book before they knew anything else about it.

2.       Find your favorite authors and follow their followers. When I first joined Twitter, I thought I needed to follow the people I thought were cool. Wrong. I needed to follow people who might think I’m cool. Thus, I looked at the followers of authors in my genre and followed everyone with “reader” in their bios. This helped me develop a quick following of people interested in reading my books.

3.       Participate in memes. A meme (which rhymes with “theme”) is a regularly recurring trend followed by a large number of people. Some memes on Twitter are “Writer Wednesday” (hash tag = #WW) and “Follow Friday” (hash tag = #FF). By giving shoutouts to groups of people using these hash tags, you’ll build a following in no time. Bonus tip: include new people each week to up your following.

4.       Follow a variety of people. I know some authors who won’t follow back anyone outside of other authors, readers, and book bloggers. My question is, why not? If there are people following you who aren’t in those categories, they may have followers who are. Follow people back who seem legitimate, even if they’re outside of what you perceive to be your target audience.

5.       Maintain an effective “Followed By” to “Following” ratio. When you first get started, you’re likely to follow a lot more people than are following you. You can manage this by cleaning out your Twitter account once a month or so with a site like FriendorFollow.com. If someone hasn’t followed you back within a month, you can unfollow them to keep your account more balanced. Be sure you’re following (and following back) a good number of new people every week.

6.       Interact with people. When people check out your Twitter page, they don’t want to see a stream of tweets where you’re promoting yourself. That’s the worst thing you can do. Instead, respond to tweets and really get to know people. They’ll very likely ask about you, too, and you can mention your books, WIPs, etc. in passing. It’s called “passive marketing.”

7.       Promote others. Twitter is a reciprocal community. The ability to retweet someone else’s tweet allows you to show your support of them in a small but noticeable way. The more you promote others, the more likely they are to return the favor. Remember that passive marketing thing? Yeah, this qualifies, too.

8.       Don’t spam or use a service to screen followers. There’s nothing worse than following someone only to receive an auto DM reading something like, “Thanks for the follow! Check out my book, ANNOYING AS POSSIBLE, on Amazon today!” Um…no. Also, don’t sign up with TrueTwit or another verification service. Just don’t.

9.       Link your other social media sites to Twitter. Many other social media sites share posts on Twitter. Two that I have linked to Twitter include my author page on Facebook and my Pinterest page. I also belong to a blog amplification site called Triberr, which allows me to promote other writers’ blog posts on Twitter while they, in turn, promote mine. All of these add variety to your tweets and increase your exposure.

10.   Share content that interests your followers. Do you write romance? Tweet a picture of a hot guy or girl. Do you write comedy? Tweet a “Relatable Post of the Day.” The key is to keep your followers engaged so that they want to share your big news when the time comes to promote it.

There you have it…the recipe that has gotten me over 7,500 followers in about eighteen months. If I’d known half of this when I got started, I’m sure I’d be well over 10,000 by now. Don’t underestimate the power of Twitter. If used effectively, it can boost your sales and your following to well beyond your expectations!

You can learn more about Raine and her books here:
http://www.RaineThomas.com | http://twitter.com/Raine_Thomas
http://facebook.com/RaineThomas | http://pinterest.com/Raine_Thomas
Posted by Bethany Lopez Author On 8:06 AM 7 comments READ FULL POST

Tuesday, March 12, 2013


Sign up for this week's awesome teaser hop!
Schedule your posts for 12:00 AM Sunday, March 16 (Eastern) to ensure everyone sees and is able to comment on your WIP.

Remember to keep it short! You want everyone to have time to comment. Use something emotional, full of imagery, or something that will just wow the readers!



Posted by Unknown On 8:17 AM 1 comment READ FULL POST

Monday, March 11, 2013

Tools & Tips ~ Swag
by M.R. Polish

Swag…. That would can install the deepest excitement, or the most dreaded fear in an author. What Can I possibly do? Should I do it? Do my readers even want it? The answers are YES, you should do swag! There are many possibilities in the swag world.

So this post is based on my own experiences and I wanted to share. I am a first time swagger, going into my second round with my second book releasing VERY soon! Is there anything new that I can do? That was my question when I ventured out in the scary dark corners looking for bookmarks I could put my cover on.  Well, in reality, I don’t think there is much that hasn’t been done, BUT there are ways to make it yours! So chin up!


First I looked at the fact that I wanted my swag to not only grab my readers/fans attention with my awesome covers, but I wanted to sink them into my story. Hook them and then hopefully they’ll want to read it.


Let’s face it, we’ve all been to a convention or outdoor event somewhere and there are free flyers, business cards and stickers everywhere and it’s like Christmas! We go bonkers grabbing everything we can. At the end of the day we dump our goodie bag out on our beds like Halloween bags and slap grabby hands away like a bad episode of hoarders, all the while we whisper in a deep raspy breath “my precious”.


We sort through it. Finding our duplicates and giving them to the grabby hands to keep them occupied and make neat little piles according to size.  What did we end up with? Bookmarks on our right, bookmarks in the middle, and stickers to our left. Odds and ends are in a pile somewhere above the mess waiting for it’s position with our self declared treasure.


NOW, what do we do? We look at each one as we put them in our treasure chest (most likely a Tupperware box) to be saved, dust free, untouched, forever…. Until our grandkids go through it after we are gone and get their dirty grabby hands on it and make us roll over in our graves because they throw away our treasure in the black garbage bag they brought. (I know, I am as enlightening as Death himself coming to visit) Hopefully one or two of us will be lucky enough to have someone in our blood line who has the same love of books, authors, and swag as we do/did, and they treat it delicately like they found an ancient trove.


What have we learned so far? Besides the fact that you are now checking your will to make sure your local librarian will inherit your “treasure”.  Yes, that’s it, you got it! We looked at them and stored them away. Well, I wanted to make something a little more. I wanted something for them to read.


So, thus started my never ending plan to create swag that will make my readers get excited and maybe even place my swag on their desk or behind a magnet on their fridge before placing it in the archives with the rest of the treasure. I’m okay with ending up there. I’m sure my swag will be in amazing company. You never know who else is in that box!


Front of brochure
ONE: Ever picked up a brochure at one of those events? Flip through it? Of course you have! So…. Why not do it for a book? Here is a couple pictures (don’t hate… they were taken on my kitchen table LOL)


I have my cover and name on front, then you open it up and BAM! Oh yeah… In Wolf Spell I have 3 POV for my 3 main characters…. I had 3 sides to play with soooooo…. I put in a paragraph or two from each pov! Just like that my readers are reading!
Then on the back I placed my blurb and then a place where they can find me. Oh yeah… how’s that for advertising! Now they are walking around that event picking up swag like candy while READING my stuff! What’s gonna (hopefully) happen? When they get home they are gonna look it up because they have to know what happens because I SUCKED THEM IN.
Inside of brochure 

Outside of brochure
Oh yes… take your swag to that next level… SIGN IT! You can see my horrible penmanship on the front hehehehe.  Now, what else can you do? You want to do something a little smaller maybe? Of course! Postcards! Not just for mailing you know ;)




Here are another couple bad pics from the kitchen table… on the front I chose a fun paragraph from when Ian is picking on Es about Bigfoot. Why? Because it is funny and shows a comical side to my book and everyone loves to smile (except the Grinch, but I don’t expect to see him at any convention I’m at because we have lovey dovey stuff in our books and that would mean he cares)

Front of postcard


So back to the postcard… Put a paragraph from your book on the front. Hook your readers. You know they may not read this one walking around the event (then again they might!) BUT they WILL read it at home while they are sorting their magical findings and place it in the very special pile of ‘To Keep Out’. Sometimes the precious things in this pile even make it to be placeholders or book marks in their books they are reading! (This is good because they see it often that way)


Back of postcard
You can see on the back I have my blurb (more for them to read) and where they can find the book and where to find me. Let me stress this right here. On EVERYTHING place at least your site or blog (mine is the same thing, I just own the domain name so I don’t have blogspot after it). EVERYTHING. Let no swag go untouched by your site.


REALLY bad pic, sorry ya'll! It looks WAY better in person.
Front of business card
Okay, so next I have the famous business card. These make great bookmarks or placeholders. They are small, versatile, and can go anywhere with you. I keep a handful in my purse at all times and leave them everywhere. I seriously have a trail for people to follow like Waldo. People can play the where is M.R. Polish game and can use my business cards as clues! Haha… the bank loves me. I leave one in the drive up thingy all the time. The next car in line is   playing the game and gets the thingy and gets excited “I got a clue! I got a clue! She’s been here!” Hahahaha… well, maybe they aren’t playing. BUT if they were, they’d be excited ;) But see… not only do the tellers get my cards, IF the driver hasn’t taken it, but the driver has first dibs on this treasure I have so cleverly hidden. Although, I have a great hometown bank that is cool with me playing games in their drive-thru lanes. LOL

Back of business card


Last but not least, I have a magnet. Because if all else fails, this usually doesn’t go into the box. It goes to a fridge. And let’s face it, we open that thing a hundred times a day. Even if we just opened it two seconds before, we will open it again. It think this is prime real estate for swag. Visitors have full viewing privileges and everyone in the house can see it.

Magnet - and not sure you can see it, but it has all my
"where you can find me info" on it - including my site


So now you have my take down on swag. I have just finished up some really gorgeous swag for Ageless Sea that I am excited about. If you are going to UtopYa you will get to see it there!  

For everyone else, my advice is to play with it. Make it yours. Sell it! Don’t be shoved in a treasure box till death do you part, make it so your fans can enjoy it. I am not the greatest, but I hope I have done at least that part. I want my fans to have fun, smile and enjoy what I do for them. Not just my books, but with my swag too.


So go out and make that swag your own! 

Get your Swagger on!

Posted by Bethany Lopez Author On 4:22 PM 9 comments READ FULL POST

Sunday, March 10, 2013



I am a high-tech manager who has spent his career working with software companies helping them move from the garage stage startup to established growing companies. It takes both technical skills and people skills so it's a lot of left brain and right brain work. I tend to work for a few years then take a couple of years off. Currently I am writing full time, but am starting to do some contract programming to fill in the edges of my free time.

Welcome James! It is so exciting to have you here at Indie-Licious. As a writer of YA fantasy and the paranormal it is super exciting to interview a college with the same fictional passion. Fantasy writers tend to be a unique breed, in a good way. People often ask me, what made you think of that? Or, do you believe in supernatural beings? Let us get to know the man behind the magic.


What do you enjoy doing when not writing?

"I read a lot (mostly Fantasy). I love to watch British TV (Sci Fi like Dr Who etc. And yes I am an American). I'm working with a new literary magazine that publishes fiction and non-fiction short stories. I love to cook and I teach classes in novel outlining, novel revision and general writing."

Cooking and writing, you definitely have broad interests. Alright, when did you begin writing? 

"I started writing in grade school, but I really got serious in College. I needed an English credit to graduate and took Creative Writing as the least painful alternative. I fell in love with writing and joined a very good writer's critique group on the internet – very early days, we only had email, the web was just getting started. We traded stories every week and critiqued each other, then passed out writing prompts and did it all over again. It was great fun and lasted for a few years before everyone got busy with real life. I still run into a couple of those folks once and a while. I'm glad to see they're still writing." 

Do you listen to music, drink coffee, etc. while writing?

"I have an epic soundtrack playlist on my iTunes. It's always playing, unless I want a change, then I have a few channels on Pandora that I switch back and forth between. For high action scenes, it's usually 80's rock music. I try to drink lots of water, but at 4:00 AM it's usually coffee."

I'm impressed, I drink coffee 24/7. It's my poison of choice. Okay, tell us what book are you currently reading, just finished reading or going to read next?

"I try to read the top sellers in my genre. Right now, I'm reading Brandon Sanderson Elantris. It's his first book and since he's one of the big successes stories in my genre, I want to see how he started out. Once I finish that, I'll read some of his later work to see how he has grown in his style. I also read a lot of indie Fantasy from folks I meet in the FaceBook groups. Currently my to-read includes Mer by Jade Phillips and Dragon Shield by Dianne Gardner." 

Who are some of your favorite authors?

"LE Modisett JR, Terry Goodkind, Terry Brooks, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchet – Seems to be a lot of Terry's on the list, maybe I should change my name. These are just a few of the leaders in my genre and my favorites. I've also read almost everything by Heinlein and Asimov. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell are also big favorites. There are too many to name. I love them all. I have bookshelves along the hallway walls upstairs, in the den, in my office. Books are stacked up on my nightstand, in the bathrooms, in the TV room. I must look like a hoarder." 

What other projects are you working on or having coming out next?

"I am already well along on the draft of Master Wizard which will be Book IV in the Apprentice to Master Series. I have started to make notes and outline stuff for the follow on to that one, but I don't have a title for that. (Well I do have a title, but it's too early to let it out.) I have a sci-fi novel I work on when I need a break from Fantasy, and a memoir about my first wife's battle with cancer. Mostly it's the Fantasy that I focus on since it's what I love the most." 

Why did you choose to write this genre?

"I write Epic Fantasy, because that is what I love to read. There just isn't enough Epic Fantasy out there. I try to make my writing accessible to all ages and Epic Fantasy is one of those where you can. I keep the violence to a minimum and don't have any "mature" scenes that you wouldn't want your kids to read. It works for me, and I think it helps broaden my audience. Besides how cool is it, when you get to write a whole chapter about someone being transformed into a dragon who goes flying around?"

Very cool, indeed! If you could live in one of your fantasy worlds and be any paranormal or have a supernatural talent what would it be and why?

"I would want magical powers that would make my manuscripts clean without all that editing and revising. No, actually, I'd love to be a Wizard and always like to write the scenes where my characters do cool stuff with magic." 

LOL! I would love the magical manuscript power too! Tell us why readers will enjoy reading your book.

"There is a lot of action and suspense. You never know what kind of trouble these characters are going to get into and how they're going to get out of it. But it's more than just magic and good versus evil. One of the underlying themes in this series is the power of the paired Wizard and Sorceress. The main characters in each of the books are a Wizard and Sorceress who meet and become paired. What that means is that they are stronger when working magic if they share their power with each other. They become bonded and live or die together. This leads to examination of their relationship, and how they will get along through all the trials they have to face. It's not a romance, but there is a strong female character and a strong male character and they have to figure out their relationship as well as how they solve the magical challenges they face."


It sounds fantastic! Thanks so much for such an awesome interview!


James' latest book, Wizard Pair just released the beginning of this month! 


Zhimosom and Rotiaqua are running for their 

lives when they learn that they are the last 

hope to save the dragons. The Evil Priest 

Sulrad is killing dragons to power the magic 

he needs to enslave the rest of the dragon clan. 

With the remaining dragons under Sulrad's 

control, there will be no stopping his evil. 



When Zhimosom learns that Rotiaqua’s 

magic is bound to Sulrad's, he realizes that 

killing the Priest is not an option. Zhimosom 

must find a way to stop Sulrad before the 

Council falls under the attack of Sulrad’s 

dragon army, or lose his partner and his 

magic, and witness the destruction of the 

last of the dragons.




Link to James!

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Posted by Amy Jones On 8:28 PM No comments READ FULL POST

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Bailey Ardisone is a collaboration between two sisters who were born and raised outside of Chicago, Illinois. They took the last names of their two grandmothers to form their pen name and combined their creative forces to write the first book in their series, called Sweet Oblivion. Though the name Bailey Ardisone applies to both of them, for the sake of answering questions they will each take on one of the names to make things easier.
Bailey:
The older sister of the two in Bailey Ardisone, has always loved getting lost in books, movies, music, and art. Fantasy is her favorite genre. She gets her love of words from their grandmother who together used to write poems, short stories and even greeting cards. Her biggest goal would be to travel and explore the world. She loves going to the beach, enjoys football Sundays, and spending time with friends and family.
Ardisone:
The younger sister of the two in Bailey Ardisone, has always held a strong love for anything art related. Whether it be drawing, music, or constantly day-dreaming, her mind never stops imagining wonderful stories and possibilities. She finally got to put some of those ideas to use with her new found love of writing novels. Some other things she is forever obsessed with are Japanese Anime and Manga, animals, traveling, her home city of Chicago and anything in miniature form. One thing she can never get enough of is sleeping/taking naps and sour skittles.
Such an interesting combination idea to create such a wonderful name - Bailey Ardisone. First, let's see what sets these two imaginative sisters apart by asking some "stop-the-presses" questions.
About the sisters:
1) Favorite food?
Bailey: Pepperoni Pizza, or anything sweet!

Ardisone - Soup is my favorite. Oh, and Italian beef from Portillo's in Chicago. Yum!

2) Favorite music?
Bailey: Alternative Rock/Punk

Ardisone: You might be surprised to learn my favorite genres of music are Punk Rock, Emo, Grunge, and Ska, just to name a few ;) Music is a huge love of mine!

3) Favorite book?
Bailey: This question stumped me, I really cant answer that. But I can say this: I love fantasy!
Ardisone: Animal Farm by George Orwell, Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, and The Star-Crossed Series by Rachel Higginson.


 4) Do you share similar imaginations?
Bailey: Honestly, I think we are totally different, but we work together well. Because we are different we can come up with ideas and are able to help each other out.
Ardisone: I feel that although our personalities are different, we still share the same imaginations. So my answer is yes, because we both are insanely in love with fantasy.

5) How was the co-writing experience? Who had the master plan? And will you ever work together again?
Bailey: It was completely a collaboration. My sister had the idea to write a book together, she also started the idea about the main male in the story. I had already picked out a few names for characters that I liked, and then together we sat down and brainstormed the rest of the story! Will we ever work together again – Yes, we have to finish The Sweet Series!!!

Ardisone: It's great - we are able to brain-storm and feed off each other to create a better book. That saying "Two Heads Are Better Than One", is totally true if you have similar wants and desires when writing a book. I had the master plan and came up with all the details and meat of the story, but you can also give credit to my husband who would not stop pushing me to try writing. Then with the combination of my ideas and my sister's old-world elements, we were able to create something that we both personally love to read ourselves! In the second book, my sister has been adding some wonderful ideas too! It really takes both of us working together and will continue to do so in the future, because like she said - we still have yet to finish the series.
About Sweet Oblivion:

1) Is Sweet Oblivion a stand-alone novel, or part of a series? Ardisone: It is the first novel in a series. Originally it was going to be just a trilogy, however we feel it may end up more than that because there is so much story to tell! We hope readers want more as well.

2) How do Narielle and Naminé interact with each other? Ardisone: They don't! These two characters each have their purpose in the story, but you have to find out how their stories unfold and connect by reading until the end ;) Currently, they don't know of the other's existence.

3) If Sweet Oblivion was made into a movie, who would be your cast of characters? Ardisone: Oh, gosh! This is tough. A hot British actor for Mycah for sure, but I have searched far and wide for current actors that could play each character and I have yet to find any! I have found models/photos that look similar to how we see them in our heads (http://www.facebook.com/TheSweetSeries/photos_albums?ref=hl) but they're not actors. Well, some of them are but they would be too old if used presently =( I will keep searching!

4) Have your main characters inherited any of your traits? Ardisone: There are a few elements of us in each of our characters I would say. When our mom read it, she would point something out and declare, "That's so you!" to each one of us. So, yes. I would definitely say that is the case.

5) What's in store for Nari and Naminé in the next novel in the series? Ardisone: A LOT! There will be many questions answered and a huge adventure to be journeyed. Sweet Escape is going to be really fun to read! We hope =)


 

Where you can connect with Bailey Ardisone:

Twitter - @BaileyArdisone
Facebook - facebook.com/TheSweetSeries




Posted by Lisa Collicutt On 2:52 PM 1 comment READ FULL POST
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